Chaelbs eobeson squiee



UNITED STATES ATENT UFFICE.

CHARLES ROBESON SQUIRE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO JAMES F. HOTCHKISS, OF PLAINFIELD, NEW JERSEY.

FORIAMALGAMASTION.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 312,587, dated February 17, 1885.

Application filed April 10, 1883. Renewed December 10, 1884.

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHARLES ROBESON S UIRE, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Treatment of Ores for Amalgamation Containing the Precious Metals, of which the following is a specification.

This invention consists in a process of preparing the ores for perfect amalgamation.

My invention also consists in effecting a complete desulphurizing of the ores by a process at once efficient and simple, it having ad vantages over prior known processes in which soda-ash has been used either in combination with the ore to facilitate its roasting or in combination with various elements, all intended to aid its own assumed insufficient action.

While the processes now in use free the sulphur to a greater or lesser extent, none of them, so far as I am informed,prepare the gold for immediate amalgamation, for in the act of roasting the ores the gold becomes more or less coated with the oxide of iron, and in consequence passes over the plates and is lost. My invention fully overcomes this difficulty and renders the gold free forinstantamalgamation, as during the pulverization the metals are scoured and brightened, thus preventing the usual glaze of oxide of iron.

In conducting my improved process I use a mixture of two solutions. These are employed either before or after the ore has been roasted, as the different ores may require, either in a bath alone of the mixed solutions or in an amalgamator with mercury. The solutions are as follows:

Solution No.1: The residuum from the manufacture of muriatic (hydrochloric) acid, which manufacture is effected by means of sulphuric acid on common salt. This residuum is sometimes called salt cake, and an analysis thereof is substantially as follows:

Solution No.2: The residuum from the manu- (No specimens.)

[ facture ofnitric acid. This residuum is sometimes called niter-cake, and its analysis is Sulphate of soda.. 75.90

Free sulphuric acid 16.61

Water 6.01

Insoluble matter 1.29

Total 99.81

The strength of the solutions must be determined by experience. Solution No. 1 may be used of, say, 22, and No. 2, 38, Baum, subject to variation, as occasion may require. 6 5

If before or after the ore has been roasted it is treated with a mixture of solutions Nos.

1 and 2, either in a bath of the solutions alone or in an amalgamator with mercury, the solutions have a scouring effect upon the oxide of iron and gold, by means of which the iron is removed and the gold left free to be taken up by the mercury. This action is partially chemical and partially due to the mechanical action of the pulverizer. It has been found that the mercury cannot flour or float in amalgamating, either in this or any other process in the presence of the mixed solution which I have described.

The solutions may be used together in va- 3 rious proportions and of different strength, as experience may suggest, for different operations or qualities or grades of ores.

This process applies to all ores carrying gold or silver, and by its employment I have in all cases obtained an amount running with in eighty to ninety-five per cent. of fire assay.

Iain aware that soda-ash has been employed either alone or in company with carbon and other substances as a necessary addition to ores priorto and for the purpose of facilitating the roasting process, in combination with carbon, salt solution, and other materials in an atmosphere of steam; but I am not aware that it has been used either alone or in combination with niter-cake, either before or after the heating of the ore indifferently to prepare the ore in addition to desulphurizing it for ready amalgamation.

I do not claim herein the use of either nitercake or salt-cake separately, as such claims are embodied in applications Nos. 101,519 and them to a mixture of a solution of salt-cake 101,520, filed July 21, 1883. and a solution of miter-cake, substantial] y as I claim as my invention hereinbefore set forth. 1. The within-described process of prepar- In testimony whereof I have hereunto set 5 ing ores for amalgamationmhich consists in my hand and seal this 9th day of April, A. D. 15

subjecting the ore to a mixture of a solution 1883.

of salt-cake and a solution of niter-cake, sub- 1 CHARLES ROBESON SQUIRE. It. s] stantially as hereinbefore set forth. Vitnesses:

2. The within-described process of desul- JOHN G. MIDDLETON, v

10 phurizing ores,which' consists in subjecting JAMES F. Hoqrornnss. 

